Should long time celebs always perform older music just to please fans even if they aren't happy with them?

Rick Nelson wrote a classic song called "Garden Party," about a disastrous show at Madison Square Garden she he got booed off stage for "growing up." Teen idol Ricky Nelson had become Rick Nelson and fans didn't take too kindly to it. My personal opinion: it depends. (I know, bad answer. ) I saw Al Stewart a couple of years ago, and I was as delighted with "Time Passages" and "Year of the Cat" as his new material. In contrast, I haven't seen Jimmy Buffett in 31 years because of "Margaritaville." Lots of people love it, but I think it's Buffett's worst song. If he's do a show where he's sing that and "Cheeseburger in Paradise" first then do his quality material I'd see him in a heartbeat. But I also realize I'm in the minority with that assessment. Bottom line: they'll go with what makes money, because they are in the business to make money. They do that by appeasing the fans, so they'll have to see if their strategy works.

Its funny you should bring this up because I was thinking about this recently. I've been following the same band (McFly) for the last 12 years. They're currently on a hiatus but up to now have toured every single year, but they haven't had a new album out for 6 years except for a greatest hits and an album as a supergroup with another band (McBusted). The thing is, I absolutely love them. but as a really huge fan of these guys I've always wanted to hear a lot of their album tracks live, and as much as I have really enjoyed all of their gigs, looking back at all of the shows I've seen, they've performed so many of the same songs live and left out so many great tracks. When I really think about it, I think my favourite tour by them was in 2005, and that was when they were still quite new and were able to fill a whole show with a full album performance. Its never been like that since. But my second favourite gig by them was their 10th anniversary show when they performed all of the hits and a few bonus album tracks. I have, however, seen what I would class as many greatest hits tours by them - this one just seemed to be the one that made sense. They had a reason to play all of their old songs. I grew up without a lot of money to spend on shows, so it was only really when I started working and had my own money to spend that I ventured out to seeing other bands and singers perform live. it was only then that I realised how different the balance is for different acts. I recently saw Adele live without having listened to her newest album (it wasn't available to stream and I wasn't able to purchase a physical copy at short notice - I don't download them). As someone who didn't really know her tracks away from the hits, I would have been absolutely lost if she hadn't have played all the big tracks. I would have been really upset not to hear "Chasing Pavements" for example, despite the fact it was released many years ago now. However, there is where the difference lies. A huge fan of someone will grow bored of the same old hits and wants to hear all the bonus tracks live. A casual fan just wants to hear what they know well and enjoy the hits, with the odd introduction to something different. I do think sometimes a song should really be retired regardless of the casual fans sometimes, however. One Direction won't stop playing "What Makes You Beautiful" despite the fact Harry Styles' voice has completely changed and he really struggles on his parts now - its not suited to them at all, and you can tell they're hating every moment of revisiting it. One Direction are also another interesting group to bring up when it comes to balancing the old and new tracks. They obviously had an odd year last year as they lost a member, but even before they did, they started a tour with a setlist which really seemed to upset their close fans. It was a bit of an odd situation - they traveled to a country they hadn't visited for the tour previous to it (Australia) and so they kept the set list almost identical - which really irritated the fans because 1. the previous tour had been on DVD for months and was practically old news and 2. they missed out on hearing a lot of new tracks live. It would also mean that Zayn Malik never performed a lot of the album they were touring, as they didn't add most of the tracks from that album until much later into the tour. Getting the balance right must be really difficult for a group/ singer.

Most artists perform a blend of old and new material. He probably resents only his old hits getting great reaction while the new stuff is less well received.

I don't think that a singer should sing all of their old songs, but like one or two to bring back old memories and show the people that they are still with classics but can be modern too.